1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a digital camera, and more particularly, to a system integral with the digital camera for identifying, translating, and recording text in images.
2. Description of Related Art
It is well known to use scanners, such as flatbed scanners, to capture and convert bitmap images of documents to text or structured documents. In some implementations of document scanners, the portion of the bitmap image that contains text is selected during a pre-scan pass of the document. The selected portion of the bitmap image is then re-scanned at a higher resolution and post-processed. The post-processing of the selected portion of the higher resolution image involves the application of selected image processing functions to clean and identify textual and formatting content of the scanned document. An example of a post-processing application is TextBridge(copyright) (sold by ScanSoft, Inc.), which is capable of converting scanned images into simple ASCII text documents or formatted documents with tables and pictures.
Performing a pre-scan pass and then rescanning an image to record document content with a handheld imaging device such as a digital camera, however, is not practical. A problem encountered when using digital image cameras to record textual content, in for example documents, is that digital image cameras generally do not have a high enough resolution to guarantee that the textual and formatting content in the recorded bitmap image will be properly detected by a post-processing application. Some digital cameras attempt to solve this problem by including a text-mode feature that is adapted to sharpen text features in a recorded image. Examples of digital cameras with a text-mode feature are the Power Shot 600 digital camera by Canon and the RDC-2E digital camera by Ricoh.
However, even with the text-mode feature, the recorded images may not be of sufficient resolution for post-processing applications such as TextBridge(copyright) to identify textual and other formatting content in a recorded image. Consequently, it is not until an image has been recorded using a digital camera and downloaded to a post-processing device such as computer that it is known whether the recorded image can be properly analyzed to identify textual and formatting content in the image. In addition, because there is no manner in which to identify the portion of the bitmap image that is of interest for post-processing analysis at the time it is recorded with a digital camera, the identifying information must be remembered and input at the time the image is post-processed.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a digital imaging device that overcomes these and other problems of recording digital images that consist of textual and formatting content. In particular, it would be advantageous to provide a digital camera that alerts a user when it is not likely that the digital camera is capable of recording an image with sufficient resolution to evaluate the recorded image for textual and formatting content. It would also be advantageous if such an improved digital camera provided a user with the ability to identify and preview those regions of the recorded image that contain textual data. It would be further advantageous if such a digital camera provided translation of detected textual data from one language to another.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method and a portable imaging device therefor for capturing text. Initially, an image recorded with an imaging unit is displayed on a viewfinder of the portable imaging device. A first user input is received from a shutter release button. The first user input is adjusted using a pointing device for identifying a first position within the displayed image on the viewfinder. In response to the first user input, the image displayed on the viewfinder is recorded in a memory of the portable imaging unit. In addition, a second user input is received from the shutter release button. The second user input is also adjusted using the pointing device for identifying a second position within the displayed image on the viewfinder. Finally, an image segment is extracted from the image stored in the memory using the first position and the second position and examined to identify textual content.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, an error rate for the textual content identified in the image segment is determined. A warning indicator is displayed on the viewfinder when the estimated error rate exceeds a threshold value. The purpose of the warning indicator is to alert the user of the portable imaging device when a recorded image cannot be accurately post-processed for the identification of textual or other formatting content. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, textual content is translated from one language to another. In one embodiment, the language from which to translate from is determined using a GPS system.